Cell culture is a very basic and important tool in the bio-medical research field, especially for culturing stem cells. Stem cell plays an important role in living organism from the embryo to the matured organism. Therefore, the potential of stem cell is unlimited in the regenerative medical field. However, in vitro culture environment of stem cell is harsh and the culture technology is also difficult. Moreover, the previous studies found that the cell behavior and properties in conventional culture method are extremely different with the in vivo cells. In order to mass production of cells, an innovative device and method for stably culturing cells is needed.
The microfluidic devices have been utilized in cell culture for many years. However, the shortcomings of the conventional microfluidic device include: (1) Cell injection through seeding microchannels causes uneven cells distribution which affects cellular interaction and therefore influences differentiation; (2) When cell injection is completed during injection processes, some cells still stay in the injection microchannel and may not be properly delivered into the culture chamber. The nutrient of the residual cells near the inlet and microchannel of device is not sufficient, leading to abnormal growth and death, therefore affect the growth of other normal cells; (3) The unhealthy cells and air-bubble could not be removed after loading the cells and culture medium into sealed microfluidic device, so that the growth of other normal cells is affected; (4) the culture chamber area is not big enough or the volume of whole device is too large, which is not conducive to mass production of cells.